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Securly, Inc. is an American company based in 
San Jose, California
San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...
and incorporated in Delaware
The Delaware General Corporation Law (Title 8, Chapter 1 of the Delaware Code) is the statute of the Delaware Code that governs corporate law in the U.S. state of Delaware. Adopted in 1899, the statute has since seen Delaware become the most im ...
. It develops and sells internet filters, spyware
Spyware (a portmanteau for spying software) is software with malicious behaviour that aims to gather information about a person or organization and send it to another entity in a way that harms the user—for example, by violating their privac ...
, and other technologies which primary
Primary or primaries may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels
* Primary (band), from Australia
* Primary (musician), hip hop musician and record producer from South Korea
* Primary Music, Israeli record label
Works
* ...
and secondary
Secondary may refer to: Science and nature
* Secondary emission, of particles
** Secondary electrons, electrons generated as ionization products
* The secondary winding, or the electrical or electronic circuit connected to the secondary winding i ...
schools use to monitor students' web browsing, web searches, video watching, social media posts, emails, online documents, and drives. It was founded in 2013.
Reception
Securly has been criticized for providing tools that empower schools to censor content and invade students' privacy. In 2017, the ''Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The ''Milwaukee Journal Sentinel'' is a daily morning broadsheet printed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where it is the primary newspaper. It is also the largest newspaper in the state of Wisconsin, where it is widely distributed. It is currently o ...
'' reported on Arrowhead High School
Arrowhead High School is a high school located in Hartland, Wisconsin. Sitting on of land, the school has two campuses, a north campus and a south campus. Juniors and seniors attend the north campus, while freshmen and sophomores attend the south ...
's implementation of Securly, which received pushback from parents and students. The software monitored activity of school-owned equipment, but also of students' own devices that connected to the school's Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio wave ...
. Points of contention included the risk of Securly being hacked, the potential sale of students' browsing and search history to insurance companies and advertisers, and general privacy concerns. Securly stated that they "monitor students' internet searches and social media posts; flag them for references that suggest such things as drug use, cyberbullying or suicide; and share students' internet browsing histories with parents who want them". Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media (CSM) is an organization that reviews and provides ratings for media and technology with the goal of providing information on their suitability for children.
director Girard Kelly said events like the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the Equifax data breach
The Equifax data breach occurred between May and July 2017 at the American credit bureau Equifax. Private records of 147.9 million Americans along with 15.2 million British citizens and about 19,000 Canadian citizens were compromised in the breac ...
show the need to protect students' data, arguing Securly does the opposite by normalizing a "surveillance state
Mass surveillance is the intricate surveillance of an entire or a substantial fraction of a population in order to monitor that group of citizens. The surveillance is often carried out by local and federal governments or governmental organizatio ...
" where students have to give up their data without their consent.
Securly says that its service allows schools to achieve compliance with state and federal requirements such as the Children's Internet Protection Act
The Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) is one of a number of bills that the United States Congress proposed to limit children's exposure to pornography and explicit content online.
Background
Both of Congress's earlier attempts at restr ...
(CIPA). Securly has claimed its services help prevent school shooting
A school shooting is an attack at an educational institution, such as a primary school, secondary school, high school or university, involving the use of firearms. Many school shootings are also categorized as mass shootings due to multiple c ...
s, but it has been criticized for not providing data that supports this claim.
References
External links
* {{Official website, http://www.securly.com, name=Securly Homepage Content-control software Internet safety Educational technology companies of the United States Organizations based in California Organizations established in 2012 2012 establishments in California